Just curious if you tried adjusting the noise reduction? The resolution is much better on the lx7 when noise reduction is -2.

As I stated above, these are not my images. They are from dpreview and another camera review site. They were shoot at base ISO, so noise reduction should not be a problem.

Lowering noise reduction does help reduce smudging even at base ISO. The image has more grain tho but acceptable in bright images. The image with the smudged brush would be clearer if NR was set lower on the LX7. The RX100 has a lot more pixels so it will be better but I think that LX7 image could be better too.